The Really Big Boy Bed

Another switcheroo for my little man. This time, it was time to move him from the toddler bed (aka, the big boy bed) to the full-sized bed (aka, the REALLY big boy bed). So you ask, why would we choose to do this, when he's been sleeping so peacefully for months now post-original toddler bed adjustment?

Because apparently, we're crazy.

We had a couple reasons for the change -- both which seemed fully intelligent and had the thought processes of parents trying to make life easier for their kiddo before we actually made the change-up.

Reason #1 - we're going on vacation next month, and since he won't sleep in the pack-n-play anymore, we wanted to make sure that sleeping on a big bed wasn't going to be an impossible transition while in a strange house.

Reason #2 - Baby girl will be getting T's crib mattress when her furniture arrives. Seemed better that we pass some of T's things onto the baby slowly rather shake up his world in one fell swoop.

Leading up to the big change-up we made a big deal of the change. T was very impressed with his buddy G$'s big boy bed last month - so we've talked up moving up to a bed that size a bunch. We've also referred to it as the Big Brother Bed -- a special place where little boys who are going to be big brothers get to sleep. Also seemed like it was a successful parenting move.

So the mattress got delivered last week (by a truck, when T was home to watch it arrive -- another parental win!) and we switched the bed last weekend.* T seemed to be very excited about the new bed. He couldn't wait to play on it with his daddy. Until it was time to nap, that is. Since that time, to put it bluntly, sleep has kind of eluded our household.

Someone appears, in theory anyway, happy about his REALLY big boy bed! Appearances are deceiving.

And yes, I know that his pillow is woefully undersized. New pillows to come. The kid hates pillows anyway.

Granted, we seemed to go through this same sleep deprivation when we switched T over to the toddler bed in the winter.  But since then T has learned how to open doorknobs, which has been interesting to say the least. It would be fully adorable to hear T sneak down the stairs and into our bedroom and announce, on multiple occasions, "I awake right now. Daddy get up! Mommy get up!" if it weren't 1AM, 2AM, and so on. We quickly wisened up and put one of those child-proof door knob covers on the inside of the door, which we figure will buy us a little time until he learns to take it off. (Is this considered cruel? Or a simple parenting survival move? I vote for the latter.) Regardless, he's still been waking up constantly, going to the door, and lying down in front of it, circa December. So we started thinking -- could it be because he's facing a different direction? We were looking for T's room to look nice - and so we set it up the way most normal rooms are set up, you know, with the bed situated in a normal way.  After a few rough nights in a row, we decided to move the bed so he's positioned the same way he was in his toddler bed and crib. He's room isn't exactly looking feng shui these days, I'll tell you that. To be honest, it's pretty funny looking.

And while it seemed to help him get to sleep during the first part of the next few nights, it hasn't fulfilled all my wishes and kept him asleep. He's quiet, but we still hear him moving back and forth between the bed and the door again and again, so we're up. And we need some sleep. Desperately.

Here's hoping tonight will be better!


*Right before Erika and the fam came to town to visit! Recap to come. I'm blaming my slow blogging on sleep deprivation!